This invention relates to a personal care power brush. More specifically, this invention relates to a battery powered power brush for scrubbing oneself in the shower, bathtub, or over a sink.
The use of various scrub brushes is generally known. When taking a bath or shower, people often use a scrub brush with a relatively long handle in order to scrub their back.
In addition to the back-scrubbing type of brushes, various powered scrub brushes have heretofore been used. The design of such brushes has varied tremendously depending upon the function (i.e., personal hygiene, washing a car or any of numerous other functions) for which the brush is intended.
The following patents show various prior brushes:
______________________________________ Patent No. Inventor Date of Issuance ______________________________________ 2,678,457 Demo May 18, 1954 3,417,417 Rhodes December 24, 1968 3,699,952 Waters October 24, 1972 3,757,419 Hopkins September 11, 1973 3,864,780 Watkins February 11, 1975 3,932,909 Johnson January 20, 1976 4,089,079 Nicholson May 16, 1978 4,137,588 Sandt February 6, 1979 4,158,246 Meadows June 19, 1979 4,397,056 Miller August 9, 1983 ______________________________________
The Demo and Nicholson patents both disclose water-powered personal brushes.
The Rhodes shows a scrubbing device which is mountable upon a holder attached to a wall.
The Waters patent shows a battery operated rechargeable scrubber.
The Hopkins patent shows a portable rechargeable tooth cleaner.
The Watkins patent shows a cleaning brush which has an arrangement to allow fluid flow out through the brush.
The Johnson patent shows a scrub brush which is self-powered and has an arched neck portion.
The Sandt patent shows a portable cleansing device with a brush and having a holder for recharging the device.
The Meadows patent shows a cordless scrubber which uses rechargeable batteries.
The Miller patent shows a toilet brush which is driven by rechargeable batteries.
Although the above and other prior brushes have been generally useful, numerous of the prior scrubbers have been subject to one or more of several disadvantages.
Prior power personal scrubbers have often been complex in construction leading to high cost of manufacture and/or excessive breakdowns. Scrubbers which are not water-proof have been quite limited in application. Powered scrubbers which are designed for personal hygiene have often been shaped or sized such that it is impossible or quite difficult to thoroughly clean one's back with them. Scrubbers which have recharging holders often require removal of the scrub brush prior to placement of the device in the holder. Further, such prior recharging scrubbers may necessitate plugging or unplugging the scrubber into the holder as opposed to simply placing it on the holder. That is, it may require an inconvenient amount of precision to place it in proper charging position. Prior scrubbers may also use holders which are damaged by water dripping from the scrubber onto the holder. Such dripping water may additionally damage the floor or anything else disposed underneath the holder.